The GOV.UK publishing service has developed a new strategy with three principles for the use of the central government web platform.
The service, part of the Government Digital Service (GDS), has indicated that it is aiming to reduce the complexity of its publishing systems and increase the speed of publications, and is planning work in a number of areas over the next two years.
A blogpost by lead product manager Tobi Ogunsina and lead performance analyst Jade Fryer said the aim “is to provide a welcoming front door for users”, the 2,300 civil servants who publish and manage content on GOV.UK.
They identified three main needs: to reduce the impact and cost of supporting a large number of applications; enabling a GOV.UK app as an alternative to the large, linear content units used for presentation on a website; and to make content ownership more flexible, with less intervention and duplication in the publishing process.
Patterns and processes
This led to the decision on three principles, the first being to create shared patterns and processes across the publishing apps managed by the service so they are easier to use, maintain and improve.
The other two are to model content to reduce duplication of effort and enable reuse, and to help government colleagues self-serve for a better publishing workflow.
Much of the work will be focused on the nine publishing apps managed by the publishing service – along with six supporting tools and four APIs – and the creation of shared design and architectural patterns.
There will also be efforts to break down content into smaller pieces for organising and classifying, and to make the publishing process easier to navigate.
The service has set up a team to focus on content reuse and modelling, and small groups within specific disciplines to focus on cross-service initiatives. It has also been sharing the strategy with managing editors and publishers within GOV.UK.
“Ultimately, we want everyone in the publishing process to be empowered to easily create and manage their content so that people can access, trust and understand it,” Orgunsina and Fryer said. “Our strategy will play a crucial role in realising these ambitions.”
